Stories by Rick Broida

Vista received well-deserved criticism for bringing few noteworthy new features in its train when it arrived to take over from Windows XP. In contrast, Windows 7 offers plenty of new stuff to like. Fortunately, you can add many of these features to y...

Though Vista and XP users can enjoy some of the Windows 7's goodies, either directly or by proxy, various highly desirable features are available only in the genuine article. Here are five that will require you to roll a 7.

Much of the excitement about Windows 7 relates to an assortment of user-interface improvements: a little eye candy here, a few window-management tweaks there. Below are some of the highlights, along with the tools you'll need to get them for your cur...

Informal speed tests show that Windows 7 boots faster than Vista, and many users have reported that it "feels" faster during everyday operation. (Maybe that's because the User Account Control is more restrained in Windows 7 than in Vista and doesn't ...

As we learned last week, it's fairly easy to fix a noisy overheated laptop: Open an underside panel, (carefully) blow out the dust, then enjoy the praise your wife lavishes on you for fixing her system.

While it's easy for Firefox die-hards like me to turn our noses up at Internet Explorer, the fact is that Microsoft's browser has made a lot of progress. You've no doubt heard about newfangled features like Accelerators and Web Slices (see Preston Gr...

Computer boo-boos happen all the time. Just this morning, an accidental graze of my laptop's touchpad inadvertently selected a big chunk of text in Word--which I then overwrote as I continued typing on autopilot.

Not enough space on your Apple iPhone for all your music? Need more storage for your tiny netbook hard drive? ZumoDrive promises to solve conundrums like these by keeping your files in the cloud but making them accessible in real-time, just as though...

My nine-year-old daughter knows how to use Google. And as someone who just accidentally landed on a porn site after typing what he thought was the URL for a sporting-goods store, I realize it's time to take steps.

Last, Wednesday I showed you kid-friendly search engine Quintura, and we also looked at the kid-friendly Web browser KIDO'Z. Today it's time for the big gun: OpenDNS. It's a server-level filter that promises to protect your kids from online violence,...

Here's a quick trick to cut down on printer consumables: downsize your output so that two pages fit on single sheet of paper.("Honey, I shrunk the Word document!") It's easy to do, and it can save you up to 50 percent on your printing costs.

A good password can mean the difference between identity safety and identity theft. Unfortunately, too many otherwise intelligent people rely on ridiculously weak passwords, the kind that make hackers rub their hands with glee.

The screen was particularly good. It is bright and visible from most angles, however heat is an issue, particularly around the Windows button on the front, and on the back where the battery housing is located.

My first impression after unboxing the Q702 is that it is a nice looking unit. Styling is somewhat minimalist but very effective. The tablet part, once detached, has a nice weight, and no buttons or switches are located in awkward or intrusive positions.

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